Acharya Prashant begins by stating that political parties are temporary, but the Earth is our mother, where we are born and where we will die. He cautions against letting politics become so significant that one forgets the mother, Earth. He observes that most politicians are not in their 20s, 30s, or even 40s. India is a country with a young population but old leaders. He asserts that these old leaders will all die, but the youth will have to live with the consequences. The issue is not that these politicians hide important matters from the public; they are not even aware of them. He suggests that if you were to gather the top 20-40 leaders and question them on these crucial issues, they would evade the questions and soon divert the topic to something like Pakistan. Responding to a first-time voter's question on whom to vote for, especially when no party seems to address the 'elephant in the room' like climate change, Acharya Prashant advises that one's vote should go to the truth. He clarifies that political parties are not meant to provide spiritual education, although they might forcibly try to enter the domain of religion. Their job is not to give spiritual teachings, nor do they have the capacity for it. Therefore, they should be judged on their actual work. He advises the questioner to see which party or leader is addressing the most important national and global issues in their manifesto and to support them, regardless of whether they are from the right, left, or center. He then presents a list of the top challenges facing humanity: Climate Change, Overpopulation, Energy Transition, Global Health Pandemics, Poverty and Inequality, Political Instability, Food Security, Water Scarcity, Biodiversity Loss, and Technological Ethics. He urges the audience to ask any candidate seeking votes if these issues are in their manifesto. If they are, they deserve the vote; if not, and they are talking about trivial matters, they should be dismissed. He explains that these issues are interconnected. For instance, global warming leads to climate change, which affects food security because crops require specific temperatures. It also leads to water scarcity and biodiversity loss. He points out that we are killing species at a rate 1000 times faster than the natural rate, often by destroying their habitats for our needs like coal mining or agriculture. He also touches upon the dangers of ancient viruses being released from melting glaciers, for which we have no immunity. He concludes by reiterating that one should vote for the party that addresses these real issues, not one that distracts with trivialities.
